in what ways do the military practices described by marco polo reflect the influence of the steppe environment on the mongols?

For Marco Polo, the Mongol military doctrine was very different from the common European military doctrines of the time. European armies relied on large infantry forces supported by smaller corps of infantry archers and cavalry. The Mongol cavalry would combine soldier, archer and knight into every single trooper, this is, every Mongol trooper was an expert rider, a marksman with an archer and a swordsman. This is a direct reflection of their native homeland, the Mongolian steppe: a huge extension of grassy land deprived from elevations (hills, mountains) worth of mention. This a land where a man on foot cannot travel too far before perishing, so the possession and skilled use of a horse is a matter of life or death. The same goes for the use of the arch, originally a hunting weapon. Since agriculture never took hold in Mongolia, all Mongols were nomadic and their livelihood depended on efficiently herding their cattle from one grazing area to the next, which made them competent in getting their bearings in a land lacking landmarks. By the time Genghis Khan united all the clans of the Mongolian steppe, some 50 years before Marco Polo was taken in the court of Genghis's grandson, Kublai Khan, Genghis had an army of riders who had unknowingly been training for war for the best part of their lives just by sticking to their traditions and doing what they had to to do to stay alive.